


I Would Wait Forever

by ShusalixSmiles



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Jesse Route or Genji Route, Post-Fall of Overwatch, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Reader-Insert, otome-game style fic, trying to fix the blackwatch boys bioengineer style
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-11-19 19:33:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11320188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShusalixSmiles/pseuds/ShusalixSmiles
Summary: Being the best bioengineer at Overwatch came with plenty of perks and problems - perks being Angela Ziegler, the food, top of the line technology and a laboratory all to yourself. The problems - well, they were called Jesse McCree and Genji Shimada.





	1. Overtime

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello my fellow overwatch nerds <3 This was just a Jesse/Reader fic first but then I got caught up in Genji and then I was like por que no los dos? We going otome-game style boys ₍₍ ᕕ༼.◕ヮ◕.༽ᕗ⁾⁾  
> As such, this first chapter comes with a Jesse part and a Genji part, and it will branch off from here to one of them in the next chapter, then the other in the next (etc)  
> I don't know whether I should go Genji or Jesse in the next chapter, but more stuff at the end notes :D I hope you enjoy, I always have a lot of fun writing the characters <3 <3  
> p.s The story starts in prefall overwatch, and ends in postfall overwatch, which is why it's tagged like that, hope it's not too confusing :>

“Hey now, y’don’t happen to have some spare time for yer favourite cowboy, now do ya?” Jesse says wryly as he peeks into the laboratory. You glance up from your latest project, flicking up the protective face plate and turning off the flame welder in your hand. You look at the blossoming purple blue bruise across his cheek, his swollen lip – flecks of blood still matting his beard – and his tattered, dusty clothes, tracking traces of who-knows-what all over the floor. He tips his hat politely as he sees you staring.  
  
“Funny, I don’t see anyone here fitting that description.” You watch him limp into the room, your gaze falling to his arm. A gasp falls out of your mouth and you leap up, lunging for his prosthetic.  
  
“Jesse McCree, what have you done to my best work?!”  
  
“Glad to see yer missed me,” Jesse snorts, slumping into a chair you pull up for him. He sighs in relief and lets you fuss over his arm, his head falling back as his eyes closed. Sparks jump from the jagged openings in the titanium alloy of his arm, wires torn apart and smoking. Occasionally one of his finger joints twitch, making Jesse wince. The entire bottom panel is peeling back and the corners look like they’ve been melted to the sides unnaturally.  
  
“How…” You trail off as you shake your head in disbelief, first disconnecting the nerve connections as soon as you could, detaching the prosthetic from Jesse’s upper shoulder.  
  
“Some new…null sector troops. Fierce lil things,” Jesse breathes, not opening his eyes as he tips his hat over his face. You carefully pick the pieces of the mechanical arm apart, and glance over at the cowboy. The arm was unsalvageable in its smoking wreckage, you could tell that at a glance, so the only thing to do now was to reinvent, try to think one step ahead. You had not been able to keep up with the latest technology, and evidently, it was a costly mistake. You turn on your lab computer, pulling up the holographic blueprint of a prototype you’ve been working on and enlarge it across the table, brushing mechanical components to the side, current project forgotten.  
  
“Go to Angie,” You throw off your mask, and Jesse grunts, not moving. You glance over and sigh.  
  
He blinks as you take off his hat, hissing softly as you press a cold pack to his face, wiping the dried blood and dust from his cheek with a warm towel. His face crinkles up, and this time it’s your turn to jump as he opens one eye and releases a breath, leaning into your hands. You purse your lips, and then reluctantly ruffle his brown hair, bits of debris falling to the floor as you gently pat his head. Jesse always has episodes like these after his missions, where he seems to seek human contact, rare moments that he lets his guard down in lieu of comfort. He gives a suspiciously pained groan as he moves.  He's favouring his left side, and his movements are stiff.  
  
“Jess. Are your ribs broken?”  
  
“Naw,” he says tightly, “Bruised, mayhap.”  
  
“And you came here first?” You say through grit teeth, trying your hardest to fight the urge to smack him through the roof.  
  
“I was missin’ my favourite mechanic.”    
  
“How about you go miss your favourite doctor?” You pick up your com device and page Angela with a simple, ‘cowboy in lab’. She replies ‘omw’ immediately. Technically, you were a bioengineer, but Jesse’s face always twists when you correct him, and he  
mutters something about it being “hard t’ say”. You tilt Jesse’s face up, and he groans as you press the pack against his cheek and look into his brown eyes, checking his pupils.  
  
“Jesse!” Angela’s voice, somehow gentle and urgent at the same time, rang out as she ran through the door. “You were told to report to me immediately after your mission, I’ve been looking for you!”  
  
“Evenin’, Doc.”  
  
“Jesse McCree!” Angela sighs and runs over, deploying a small biofield as she gives you a grateful smile and pats your cheek. Jesse breaths as the cuts on his face heal over, leaving only the blood stains behind. “Let’s get you to the infirmary.”  
  
“Alright, alright,” he says grudgingly, and he grimaces as he stands up, taking the ice pack from your hands. His gloved hand lingers for a moment against your fingers, and then he lets Angela put an arm around him and support him out.  
  
“Thanks Angie.” You smile, and catch Jesse’s small glance over his shoulder. “I’ll check on you later, favourite cowboy.”

* * *

When you finally decide to take a break from your work, its already deep into the night. Your eyes are sore from staring so intently at the blueprint and other bright holograms, and metallic components run through your head aimlessly. There was a cup of coffee sitting at the edge of the table, even though you have no memory of anyone coming in. You’re not surprised that its completely cold. You’re reluctant to go to sleep before you get some concrete work done, but you know it’s not productive if you’re too tired. As you leave the mech lab, you pause. After a moment of thought, you turn for the infirmary.  
  
You sneak into the medical wing of Overwatch’s facility, your footsteps loud on the clean linoleum. Jesse was in a private room, and you tiptoe into his room. His hat sits on the bedside table, and your vision adjusts to the soft moonlight through the thin gap of the curtains. Jesse snores softly, and his dirty clothes is replaced by the usual hospital whites, his arm on top of the covers. Two fingers are taped together on his hand, but his surface wounds have visibly faded. The biofield attached to the bed is already influencing you too, and the soreness in your neck and shoulders fade to a dull numbness. You peek at the medical evaluation at the foot of his bed, glancing up to make sure the dim blue glow doesn’t wake Jesse up. Mild concussion, bruised ribs, internal bleeding, hairline fractures on his fingers, along with a miscellaneous spread of other injuries. You breathe in sharply through your teeth, tapping the hologram down.  
  
You softly slump into the bedside seat, your eyes naturally drawing to the synthetic attachment at his shoulder. One of the youngest members of Blackwatch, and two years in, he’s already lost his arm. Without thinking, you gently run your fingers over the attaching point. You were thinking of changing the material so it would put less pressure against his arm, but you would have to make sure it was still sturdy enough to support the strength of the alloy you were going to use. You suppress a flinch as his taped fingers groggily grab at yours, and you look up to see him smile sleepily.  
  
“If yer wanted t’hold my hand, yer coulda just asked,” he mumbles, trying to sit up. You frown and push him down softly.  
  
“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up. Sleep, Jess,” You whisper, but arguing with him is harder than trying to reason with a child, and in the end, you let him take a more solid grip on your hand and let it fall onto the bed covers.  
  
“Let me hear yer voice some more,” he sighs, his eyes fluttering. You glance over at the IV drips, wondering what the dosage on his painkillers was. “I really missed yer, darlin’.”  
You try not to roll your eyes. Jesse’s natural inclination to flirting came out full force when he had no inhibitors. The skin on his hands is rough and blistered, and he holds your hand tighter than he should with two presumably broken or fractured fingers.  
  
“…What happened on the mission?” You move your other hand to cup his, lightly prying his tight hold on you to make sure his fingers aren’t straining, smoothing out his hand and stroking his warm palm reflexively as he weakly protests. He seems satisfied with that and relaxes somewhat against his pillow. His wild brown hair splays across the pillow, and you idly think that he needs a haircut. Maybe a small shave too, his beard was getting a little scruffy. He looks at you through half lidded eyes and his hand tries to tighten its hold on you again. You tut and shake your head, threading your fingers through his to stop him, patting his warm skin with the pads of your fingers. Even though you felt more mature than him, you always seemed to forget how young he was, despite being around the same age. It always felt like you needed to take care of him. It was the same with Genji, but the somewhat distant ninja was far less affectionate and, for lack of a better word, attention seeking.  
  
“…Was a bit of a doozy,” he chuckles, “I didn’t expect those new bots to explode, all self-destruct like.” You’re frowning so hard it’s starting to hurt your face. “Lucky ’Mander Reyes figured it out in time, else I was a dead man.”  
  
“Jeez, Jess…” You sigh, shaking your head. “And you came to get your arm fixed first? Your injuries could have got worse!”  
  
“Hey, I won’t have yer dissin’ that arm!” he protests, “You musta made that arm outta somethin’ sturdy, it took a good chunka that blast n’ kept my head from bein’ taken right off.”  
  
“I don’t care, you escaped death by a hair and then you throw it away by not going to get treated immediately? Are you trying to piss me off on purpose? How expendable do you think your life is?”  You try not to raise your voice, but you’re sitting on the edge of your seat. He has the decency to look ashamed.  
  
“Didn’t mean to worry yer, sweetheart.” He gives you his infamous puppy dog eyes, the big brown eyed look that melts women, men and omnics alike – sans you.  
  
“Don’t call me sweetheart,” You scold, narrowing your eyes.  
  
“I’m real serious, swee – I’m serious, I just –” he clears his throat somewhat sheepishly and sighs. “I meant to go to the Doc first, I swear.”  
You watch him sigh again and fall back onto the pillow. His hand tightens slightly in yours. “I just wanted t’see you first, was all.”  
You stare at him, and after a moment of silence, deflate, slumping in your chair. Jesse is capable of draining all the energy from your body without even trying. You sigh and pull one of your hands away to brush his messy hair from his forehead.  
  
“You are high as a kite, Jess.”  
  
“Mhm,” he chuckles and lets his eyes fall close, “Doc put me on somethin’ real heavy.”  
  
“Get some sleep.”  
  
“Mhm,” he hums but he doesn’t let go of your hand, and you end up waiting until his breathing slows down and his hand loosens so you can leave. You breathe out and stretch, glancing down at Jesse’s face. An idiot’s face, really. A handsome one, you’ll admit, in a rugged, charming way, but an idiot’s, nonetheless. You softly press a kiss to his forehead and leave.

* * *

You shift awake, various pains in your body pinging to life as you raise your head from your work table. Despite your conviction to sleep properly after working for so long, you had immediately gone back to the lab after you visited Jesse and begun to research again. You couldn’t bring yourself to sleep after seeing Jesse like that. When you rub your eyes and slowly push yourself up, a blanket slips from your shoulders.  
  
“Hm?” You wonder who would wander into the lab at – you glance at the clock – 6.30 am in the morning. A 2-hour nap wasn’t too bad. Early morning light bleeds in from the windows, and you groan as you stretch, numerous cracks filling the air as you twist and turn. You can hear birds outside. Fatigue still drenches your body, and there’s a knot in your back that just won’t clear out no matter how hard you stretch. You groan again and knead the spot with your knuckles.  
  
“Here,” a soft, accented voice says, and there’s a gentle pressure in your back as someone pushes your back leg out easily so that you could feel your muscles extend.  
  
“Oh!” You feel the stress relieve immediately, and sigh blissfully. “Thanks, Gen.”  
  
You turn around and Genji immediately steps back out of your personal space, avoiding eye contact as usual. Only the Blackwatch ninja was quiet enough to sneak around with such little presence. His red eyes glow softly from his metal visor, an interesting side effect of certain treatments he underwent and the medication he had to take, and it’s hard to miss the scars criss-crossing over the parts where his flesh met the metal. The dull silver of his body armour fits like a puzzle on him, bits and pieces of metal and body trying to work together and perform as a single functioning unit. It is painfully obvious that he is incomplete, and it presses on the back of your mind unpleasantly.  
  
Even though he stands loosely, you can feel it without even trying. The tension that radiates off Genji, a dense aura, so palpable it made the air thick wherever he went.  
  
You remember your first time meeting him. Angela had called you with the highest level of medical emergency and you had come face to face with the most extensive case of bodily damage you had ever seen, save the bodies completely disintegrated by explosions. Genji – at least part of him – was your most complex creation yet, and you were far from done. You had a lot to discuss with Angela, but you would have to do that when you were both free.  
  
Ever since he has opened his eyes on that hospital bed, touched the metal at his face with the metallic joints at his hand, Genji has radiated this tension. He has never outwardly expressed this intense pressure to you, despite your responsibility in his current state. In turn, you have always been wordless as you repair his fists, knowing the damage comes from the training facility walls and his own room. You do not ask questions about the pained Japanese that he growls from between grit teeth as he suffers from inexplicably high fevers and phantom pain in the hospitable bed, and you lie when he finally regains consciousness and asks you where the bruises on your arms and hands come from.  
  
Until he is ready, you will wait.  
  
Genji winces as he moves and bends to pick up the blanket from the floor. He places it around your shoulders, careful not to touch you directly and then backs away to that same distance.  
  
“You will catch a cold with such sleeping habits.”   
  
“Idiots don’t catch colds, right?” You smile, just a little. He looks a little surprised, and you count it a victory when it almost seems like he’s amused. “How are you? Let’s do a check-up, shall we?”  
  
“I think it is wise that you rest first –”  
  
“It’s cute that you think it was a question, Gen. Sit down.” You grab your goggles, letting them hang around your neck until you needed them, and put through an order to the kitchen for coffee. The AI functioned 24 hours a day, and it was a blessing. “Want  
anything?”  
  
“No…thank you.” Genji shakes his head. He was still capable of eating, but since his lower jaw was primarily synthetic, eating was difficult and hard to get used to. The kitchen would make try make food that was easy to consume, but Genji still tended to skip meals, making it so you would often have to give him supplements and watch over him. You order through a protein drink anyway, one that Angela personally devised for the unwilling patient. You yawn and sit down at your desk, wrapping the blanket around you and leaning over to plug in Genji’s system cord into your computer. The laboratory was designed so that your desk/work bench was at the entrance, while all the technical areas were sectioned off further down. The good thing about your area was that activatable partitions meant that you could control the privacy of your work and any patients you were with.  
  
A diagnostics page pops up and you look over his vitals, tapping on the holographic screens one by one and scanning every number carefully. His core temperature is a little high, and his internal system is overworked as it tries to balance the two conflicting parts of his body. The artificial nerves in his right arm are sending incorrect signals, and you will have to check for yourself to see if it was due to external damage or a technical issue. Just like Jesse, the list of problems goes on. You slide all the functioning holographic panels to the right and enlarge the panels with red warnings closer to Genji.  
  
“I knew it was too early for you to be sent out…” You sigh, sliding on your safety gloves. The higher ups had given the green light for Genji’s first Blackwatch mission, and despite all your and Angela’s official reports protesting the action, he was still issued the task. Overwatch was, and still is, under tremendous pressure to produce results, and it seems they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of progress.  
  
“I was ready.”  Genji nods as you silently ask for his permission before sliding open the panel on his arm. You stop and look up at him. He averts his eyes.  
  
“Gen.” You keep staring, and eventually, reluctantly, his red eyes meet yours. “I don’t care what you say to Morrison. I don’t care what you say to Reyes, or whoever else asks you if you think you can take on a mission. But me? You will not lie to me.”  
Genji blinks. His shoulders droop as he falls victim to your solemn stare, and he glances away and nods. You hum approvingly and pick out a long, slender pick, the one that Jesse always jokes looks like a dentist tool and put the handle between your teeth as you peel open the metal panels with your hands.  You swivel back briefly to turn off the nerve sensations on the hologram, the blue numpad beeping as you tap in the password needed to authorise the process.  
“Pluth, you thouldn’t thlight thumone who has acceth to your heart.”  
  
Genji doesn’t say anything, but tilts his head as his eyebrows draw together in confusion. You scoff and take out the pick. “Plus, you shouldn’t slight someone who has access to your heart.” You replace the pick with a small torch and peer into the slender compartment. You carefully unhook the nerves and wires that ran through his arm, sifting through the thick bundle of wires.  
  
“Gen, turn on the torsh pleathe,” You ask through the torch. He manages to decipher your words through the context, and you finally find a few lengths of delicate wire that have been fried, the mainframe burning through it as it overheated. You frown, as much as a torch in your mouth lets you. You never would have thought overheating would be such a problem.  
  
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty…” You mutter, disconnecting the bundle and replacing it with new, temporary ones. “Maybe I can install coolant system?” You write it down, adding it to your list of changes.  
  
One by one, you go through each of the problems, writing adjustments and new solutions down as you went. Quick fixing was fine for the meantime, as long as Genji wasn’t sent on another mission, but you needed better answers to these issues, and preferably fast. Finally, you reach your last task – something you’ve purposely left until the end. You put away your goggles and warm your hands the best you can inside the blanket, casually pulling your chair just a bit closer to Genji’s.  
His faceplate was actually made up of two pieces, but you had yet to perfect the way they interacted with each other and with the rest of his body. Right now, the bottom half likes to come loose from where it hinges at his jaw, and set warnings off where it begins to chafe against the material of his chin. There is so much work to be done on it, but since it obviously bothers Genji to expose himself like that, you didn’t really like to bring it up much, and tried to work on the 3D projection of the model instead. Sadly, there was only so much you could do without actually working with the real thing. You tap your temple and tilt your head.  
  
“Do you mind, Gen?”  
You can’t read his eyes, but he shrugs and leans forward, the tense set of his shoulders giving him away. You pause to see if he’ll open it himself, but he waits stiffly, even the motion of his breathing muted and minimal. You raise your hands to his temple and he freezes, briefly, until you push your fingers against the joints and twist until you hear it click, waiting until the whirring noise stops before you pull it away from his jaw. The contrast between the material of his lower jaw and his skin is always stunning, every time you see it. It’s not frightening – not for someone like you, growing up and thriving in an environment of biotechnology – it’s a breathtaking experience every time, like you’ve just invented a new colour. The scars lining the metal are clean, and you can still see it like it was yesterday, the blood running down his face, the unnerving perfection of the red cuts that marred Genji’s flesh, and those dark, brown eyes, not filled with pain, but an unfathomable shade of sorrow.  
  
“- tor? Doctor!”  
You blink up at Genji, not realising he’s been calling you. Just like Jesse, he has found an alternative method of addressing you. Well, you have a PhD so at least Genji's made sense. You’ve probably been staring rudely, and quickly clear your throat, ripping your gaze to the faceplate instead.  
  
“Is there are problem?” he sounds different without the mask to filter his voice, and it is soft, and unbelievably warm. He tries to sound uncaring.  
  
“No, no. I just want to change the locking mechanism and make it better fitting.” You turn the plate in your hands, rubbing your fingers against the scratched metal. “Hrm…I wonder if it would be better if there was just a large secondary plate? Then we could ditch this bit altogether…” You muse, and a short ding draws your attention upwards. An omnic arrives with your coffee, Genji’s drink, and a small plate with a steaming cheese croissant. The omnic floats over, the little orange Overwatch icon bright on its chest.  
  
“Good morning,” It chirps as it places down the plate at your desk.  
  
“Morning! Oh? I didn’t order any food?” Your mouth waters at the smell of the snack anyway.  
  
“Doctor Ziegler left instructions that any orders from this laboratory at this time to be accompanied with the [Breakfast Item of the Day],” It replies and takes the tray, waving goodbye as it floated out the door. You sigh blissfully, a smile on your face as you remind yourself to make something special for Angie when you had the chance. Truly an angel in disguise, there was no one in the facility that deserved her kindness.  
  
“Angel…?” You hum, and quickly write down ‘wings? Microlattice?’ onto your notepad. “Try get something down, okay?” You hand the drink to Genji, and he takes it hesitantly. You open your drawer as you see him eyeing the glass, a deep green colour from the chlorophyll. He stays wordless as you plop a straw into the glass and beam at him.  
  
“That should make it easier, right?”  
  
He raises an eyebrow and twirls the straw between his fingers. For a moment, the guarded expression on his face falls, and you’re stunned by how young and innocent he looks. The disappointment almost physically hurts when he catches himself and shrugs.  
  
“Thank you,” he says as he turns slightly, bringing the straw up and taking a sip. “I think.”  
  
“Mhm,” You mumble through a mouthful of croissant, pulling out a spare lower faceplate. You compare it to the old one and make adjustments, tightening parts and filing out the chafing area. Another temporary quick fix, but you would have to make a few prototypes for your new idea on Genji’s faceplate before you can implement it, _if_ it happened to work.  
  
“Is it getting easier to eat and drink?” You glance up as he finishes off the drink, grabbing a tissue from your desk.  
  
“…Well, I am getting better –” Genji’s words cut off instantly and he freezes as you use the tissue to wipe the residue at his chin. Loud alarms explode in your head and you try not to let your panic show on your face as you realise you may have just destroyed all the progress, technically or trust wise, you have made with Genji in the past year. Other than operations and in unavoidable situations, you have never touched him without first asking and gaining permission, let alone somewhere as personal as his face. You were careless in the early morning atmosphere, and you weren’t exactly in peak mental condition. Genji has remained motionless, his red eyes unblinking as he purses his lips. The alarms keep ringing.  
  
“Gen, I –” You start, running a hand through your hair.  
  
“Doctor,” Genji finally moves and places his glass on the table. The tissue is crumpled to nothing in your fist as he stands up and disconnects himself from your computer. He picks up the new faceplate and clicks it into place, leaving only his eyes once again. For the first time, he willingly makes eye contact with you first, and not being able to read that red stare is excruciating in the silence – “Do not worry yourself so much over something trivial. If it is you…I do not mind. Thanks for your hard work.” He bends slightly at the waist in a polite bow as he leaves the lab, and you release the breath you’ve been holding.  
  
Could it be that you’ve made more progress than you thought? The idea fills you with a sense of accomplishment and happiness.  
You finally notice the incessant beeping at your computer, and you realise a holographic panel is flashing. Even though Genji has been disconnected, his temperature log appears as you tap on the warning with your finger. A spike in Genji’s core temperature had almost caused a system failure and you almost have a heart attack until you realise the time stamp of 7.45 am…2 minutes ago.  
  
“Huh.” You run another diagnosis but it doesn't seem like a mechanical failure. You'll have to keep your eye on that. You stretch again and walk over to the window, wrapping the blanket around you as you open it and enjoy the fresh morning breeze against your face. The rising sun is gentle against your skin, and the sweet chirp of the sparrows is almost enough to put you to sleep again.  
  
“I’ll need to fix that overheating problem soon, huh?” You sigh, a small smile on your lips.  



	2. How to Understand a Cyborg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because you made a good chunk of Genji's body doesn't mean it's any easier to know what he's thinking, but maybe some quality mission time can finally bridge the gap. Of course, things NEVER go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definition of:   
> trash  
> /traʃ/  
> noun  
> 1\. me i am trash sorry i take long and am bad   
> Hey so guess what Genji's route got voted most so here we go part 1. genjo route, there's just one after this and then we onto the cowboy wooooooooo also I'm going to Japan so who knows when I'll be writing see above definition anyway thanks for being cool and reading I really appreciate it <3

“Commander Morrison?” You knock on the door to his office, and you wait for the muffled talking to come to a stop.   
  
“Come in.”  
  
You open the door and greet the blond commander, turning to acknowledge Reyes sitting in the seat in front of Morrison’s desk. He nods, leaning his face on his palm.  
  
“What can I do for you?”   
  
“Sorry to interrupt, sir. I was told that Genji is being sent on another mission, and as someone overseeing his recovery, I have to protest.”   
  
Morrison sighs, a tired sigh that says he already knows where this conversation was going, and sits on his desk table, his uniform blues crumpling against the wood.   
  
“I tried to reason with the higher ups. They’re not having any of it, especially now that he’s shown he can complete missions.” Morrison rubs his temples and pulls up a mission overview from his comm device.   
  
“With no small cost to his health,” You say tightly. “And he still hasn’t completely recovered – not to mention I haven’t fixed a lot of the issues involving his body.”  
  
“I’m aware, I received your detailed report. I’ve tried everything to delay his deployment, but…”   
  
“The button pushers don’t know shit about the real world. They just want pretty results on paper, and as long as there’s nothing on their hands, they don’t care.” Reyes shrugs, and the sneer on his face is filled with spite. You contain your irritation, knowing it wasn’t in their control and it was unreasonable to demand otherwise. Morrison sighs and scratches his head, and he looks ten years older.   
  
“Why don’t you just go with him, chica?” Reyes says casually, not even looking at you as he reads something on his comm device.   
  
“Excuse me, Sir?” You blink.   
  
“Just go with him,” he repeats, glancing up and tapping his hologram close after he scans his handprint on a document.   
  
“I don’t know if that’s the best idea –” Morrison begins, but Reyes interrupts.   
  
“You’re a trained field agent, right?”    
  
“Well – yes –”  
  
“Then you can look after yourself if there’s any trouble, and make sure our robot boy is good. I’m sure the higher ups won’t mind.” He ends the sentence with a stiff smile. You open your mouth and then close it, and then slowly nod.   
“Right. Yeah -  yes.” You straighten up. “If I have permission?”   
  
“Reyes…” Morrison frowns and glances at you. “I don’t like the idea of sending someone without a lot of field experience on a two-man mission.”  
  
“Well, that’d be an issue if you were in charge of Blackwatch missions.” Reyes gestures at your wrist. It’s been beeping but you’ve been so engrossed in the conversation that you haven’t noticed. You open it and a mission report pops up, approved by Blackwatch commander, Gabriel Morrison. “But…”  He shrugs at Morrison. The blond man looks upwards for a brief moment and he shakes his head.   
  
“You know, it feels like Blackwatch is giving me more trouble than it’s worth.”   
  
“We get the dirty work done.” Reyes looks like he wants to say more, but he eyes you and settles for clicking his tongue instead. “There’s a mission briefing in two days, and you leave in a week. You better get ready, kid.”

* * *

The operation seems easy – a simple infiltrate and reconnaissance mission on a terrorist sect that Overwatch suspected was planning an attack soon. Due to Genji’s athletic capabilities and the high-tech camouflage integrated in his body armour, he was ideal for such a slippery, stealth mission. You, on the other hand, had not been on a mission in a long time. That didn’t mean you didn’t keep up to date and make sure you were ready at all times, but getting such a serious mission all of a sudden was a little nerve wracking for a bioengineer. Genji doesn’t comment on the fact that you’ve been added to the mission, but you don’t miss the narrow of his eyes as he nods.

* * *

The train ride is overnight, and you’re alone in the carriage, enjoying the view through the glass. Your breath fogs up the glass, and eventually it gets too dark to see outside, the lights of the city fading away to the ‘in-between’ of countryside. Genji prefers to travel on the _outside_ of the train, for the same reason he likes to travel at night. Even if it is a little lonely, it’s not like you can’t understand the reasons behind it. The whistling of the wind makes you shiver even though it’s warm inside the carriage, and you dig an Overwatch jumper out from inside your bag. Peeking out from your carriage, you make your way down the warmly lit hallway to the walkway between the trains. Your hair whips around your face the instant you open the door, and you yelp as the chilly wind shoots right through you.   
  
“…Genji?” You feel kind of silly, calling out against the cold into nothing. Your voice just flies right past with the wind. “Um, well, if you can hear me, I’ve left a jumper here for you. Watch your internal heating systems, okay?” You stand there for a while, then tie the jumper around the railing and go back inside. The warmth floods you like you’re stepping into a hot bath, and you sigh.   
You wish Genji could experience it the same way.

* * *

Genji is climbing through the motel room window when you arrive, and he dips his head as he lands and you peek through the door.   
  
“How was the trip?” You ask with a grin as you throw your things onto the bed, and Genji sets down his bare minimum luggage onto his – it consists of his weapons, and the things he needs to clean them.  
  
“A little windy,” he shrugs, and you notice suddenly that he’s wearing the jumper you left outside. He’s rolled up the sleeves and reloads the compartments with shuriken. You catch the edges of his eyes soften as he clicks them into place, “But manageable, with some help.”   
  
“Glad to hear it.” You smile, and set up the computer and equipment you need to keep an eye on Genji’s operating systems and condition. He eyes them somewhat wryly.   
  
“You did not need to come with me on this mission, Doctor.” Genji pulls the jumper over his head and folds it neatly on top of his bed as the room warms up, and you tilt your head at him as he lets you plug him in.   
  
“You wouldn’t say that if you could understand these system messages like I can.” You gesture at the holographs. His eyes crinkle slightly.   
  
“This mission is not…safe.”  
  
“Oh? So you’re worried about me?” You ask, giving him a meaningful look. “I wonder what it’s like to be worried about someone’s safety and wellbeing all the time?”  
  
He has the decency to look away. Well, that’s one thing he has in common with Jesse.  
  
“It is a little different,” he mutters, running a cloth down the glinting edge of his katana.  
  
“Only difference is that I know how to take care of myself,” You scoff, running a check through all his systems to check their functionality. The check comes back clean, for now. “Is the faceplate still uncomfortable?”  
  
“Better since you resized it, thank you.”  
  
The room falls into the comfortable silence you’re used to, and once you’re done checking Genji and spend some time designing and re-designing his model, you read over your mission report again. You were supposed to infiltrate the building at night, staying outside and providing backup while Genji basically does all the heavy-lifting inside. Considering he has a less than 1% error margin, you shouldn’t be too worried, but that’s if his body doesn’t malfunction in any way at all and nothing external and unexpected happens that you haven’t prepared for manages to occur.  
You’d like to think that you and Angela had tried to foresee any possible combat strategies/occurrences, but there was something about battle that made it impossible to predict everything. It irks you more than you like to admit, and you glance over at the cyborg, meticulously polishing his wakizashi. The only time he ever seems so focused and at ease was when he cleans his weapons like this. Perhaps the familiarity of his routine reminds him of the life he once had.   
The thought makes your heart heavy. You try to concentrate on your own work, but you can't help but sneak glances at the ninja as he works away, purpose in every single one of his movements.   
  
To your surprise, he’s the one that talks first.   
  
“You remind me of a cat I once knew.”   
  
You don’t think anything anyone has said has thrown you off this much and a clever ‘huh?’ comes from your mouth. His eyes glint, just a little.   
  
“There used to be a cat that would roam our estate,” Genji says fondly, and you hold your breath. This is the first time he has ever talked about his past to you. “A wild cat, she would come and go. She liked to sunbathe on my window ledge as I did this.” He gestures to his lap, where his weapons lay.   
  
“And I remind you of her?” You raise an eyebrow with a smile, noting the distinct lack of window ledge and sun.  
  
“She would watch me with such intensity – though she would pretend she was not when I looked over.” Genji looks up briefly and you try not to flush with the embarrassment of being called out, but his eyes are not harsh. “Her eyes were the same colour as yours.”   
  
“Is that a compliment?” You joke as he slides his katana into its sheath, and he tilts his head, as if trying to remember. Something about him grows dark, his glowing nostalgia fading away.   
  
“They were a beautiful colour,” he finally says, and the words sound far too heartbroken for you to feel flattered. He sighs, as if his memories have exhausted him. You wonder what he must have remembered. “I have kept you too much, you should rest.”  
  
“And you’re going to…?”  You ask as he walks to the window and slides it open.   
  
“Take a walk. Sleep well.” He nods and proceeds to ‘take a walk’ by jumping onto the roof next door. You don’t comment on his lack of desire to sleep, you can imagine that he has many reasons for not wanting to dream. You hum to yourself and prepare for bed, trying to imagine a younger Genji in his room at home, smiling to a cat on the window ledge.

* * *

What wakes you up isn’t the alarm you’ve set for the morning, but a persistent rustling in the dead if night. You rub your eyes as you try to make heads and tails of where the noise is coming from, and it’s only when you sit up and look around the room that you find the source.   
Genji appears to have dozed off – not in his bed, but cross-legged against the wall – his arms folded across his chest over his katana that leans on his shoulder. His head is dipped forward and every so often, his breath hitches. It’s a soft sound, but you were a light enough sleeper for it to wake you up. You pad slowly over to his sleeping figure, letting your eyes adjust to the darkness as you kneel in front of him. His eyebrows are pinched and the sounds he makes under his breath begin to sound more and more tight and panicked. You hesitate before placing your hand on his shoulder, and you pull back as you reconsider. Maybe it was better not to startle him in the middle of his sleep.    
In that moment you retract your hand, Genji’s eyes shoot open – and it’s straight out of a horror movie, the way his red eyes are wild and unfocused and _scared_ and you don’t have time to even yell before he lunges at you. Your head slams against the floor of the room and your vision is multi-coloured as hands wrap around your throat. Your hands automatically brace themselves against Genji’s metallic forearms, desperately trying to pry his fingers from their tight grip.   
It’s useless, you should know. You built them.   
The stars fade from your vision, but it’s replaced by black dots and blurred edges, Genji’s weight holding you down as you try to speak, say something through the vice around your neck. His chest heaves as you struggle with fading strength, and his eyes burn with the crazed ferocity of a cornered animal. You gasp and try to keep the panic at bay, gripping Genji’s wrists as you feel yourself losing consciousness.   
  
“ – Gen…!” You finally manage to rasp, and just before it all fades – the pressure disappears, and you’re coughing and choking air back into your lungs, doubled over on the ground. Your eyes water from the release, and you clutch your sore throat, immediately looking for Genji as soon as you’re coherent again. He sits back on his haunches, and his eyes are clear but he looks broken as he stares   
at his shaking hands and when he meets your eyes his brows pinch and it looks like he’s going to cry.   
  
“Gen –” Your voice is husky and you cough again as you reach for him. He moves so fast you don’t even see it, already halfway out the window. He turns back briefly, like he wants to say something but he just closes his eyes – and then he’s gone, leaving nothing but the chilled wind blowing against your skin. You touch the burning skin at your throat, and you swallow hard before you yank on the jumper on Genji’s bed, throw on pants and climb out the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah running around the rooftops of an unknown city at night when it's really cold !!!! how the hell you supposed to catch up to a mechanically advanced ninja?!   
> cliffhangers are my best friend and genji has the worst dreams ): thanks so much for reading, I'll update asap <3 <3 your comments and kudos are so very appreciated and loved thank you so much ༼;´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽


	3. Fire and All That Comes With It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cold night is a perfect time for a fire, even if it's not made the conventional way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well turns out I had no time to write on the Japan/Korea trip hahahahaahahahahahahahahahaha why did I think I could do it I'm so dumb  
> ANyway here's final Genji chapter it's McCree next woohoo!!! I really hope you guys enjoy, thanks so much for reading!

It takes you a painful amount of time to find Genji, because other than the fact that you’re stumbling around on rooftops with no shoes, little clothing and non-ninja like reflexes, you’re also running after a master of escape. The only reason you’re able to track him down is because he’s been so sloppy in his exit. There are cracked tiles where he’s landed, some missing altogether, and chimneys bear the mark of his mechanic hand, crushing the metal as if it were dough. You’re not exactly stealthy as you scramble from roof to roof, but when you finally catch sight of him, standing in the shadow of a chute with his back to you, you’re distinctly aware that he’s not going to stop just because you asked him.  
  
“Gen.” Your voice is raspy, and he flinches when you talk. You approach him like you’re trying to sneak close to a frightened animal, and you stop when his head turns slightly to the side. “Will you come talk to me, Gen?”  
He doesn’t say a word, but you see his fists clenched tight at his sides as he remains motionless.  
  
“Gen –”  
  
“Please leave.” His words sound like dry, crumbling leaves.  
  
“I’m not going to leave you.”  
  
“Doctor - !” Genji’s fist slams into the metal chute, warping it out of shape with a painful screech. His arm shakes. “I do not want to hurt – I cannot, I am…a…” He retracts his hand, staring at his palm. You narrow your eyes, and stalk towards the edge of the roof, glancing over the side briefly. His head turns slightly as he follows your sound. In the dark, you can barely make out the alley way ground.  
  
“If I jumped off this roof, I would die.” You brush pieces of tile off the roof with your foot, listening to the pitter patter of them clicking against the ground. He tilts his head, and you turn to face him, your back to the edge. He still doesn’t look at you.  
You close your eyes and inhale, exhale, letting the cold air fill every inch of your body. And then you fall backwards.  
When you open your eyes, you face a pair of frantic red ones. You’re back on the roof, far from the edge, as if you hadn’t shifted at all, and Genji places you on the ground, wild confusion in his eyes.  
  
“ _Doct –”_  
You throw your arms around his neck and he jolts, but you stand your ground this time, not giving him an inch of leeway.  
  
“Gotcha, Gen.” You smile as you lean your cheek against the metal of his faceplate. “You’re not going to hurt me, so please don’t run from me anymore, okay?”  
There are two long beats, and an eternity seems to pass before he finally deflates, a single, tired nod your only reply.

* * *

Back in the room, Genji is still reluctant to come within 3 arm lengths of you, but you stride across the room and yank him onto the edge of your bed as you swaddle yourself in the blankets, trying to remember what it was like to feel warm again. The warm orange light doesn’t make the Genji’s tense form any softer, and you sigh, your heart clenching tight. This quiet is not the comfortable silence that you enjoy, but you know the cold interlude is necessary right now. The hum of your electronic devices seems to grow louder with each passing tick of silence, and you decide to break it, even though your words could never feel right.  
  
“Gen, I can’t even imagine what kind of torture you’ve been put through. I don’t know what I can do to help. I’m a... glorified mechanic, bolts for brains. All I want to know is how I can make you smile,” You say, trying to formulate what your brain was trying to convey to the best of your ability. He breathes out slowly, and turns to face you on the bed, though his eyes still fall downcast.  
  
“No matter what I have suffered, the last thing I wished for was to harm you, Doctor,” His words are chosen carefully, but his voice is unsteady.  
  
“I know.”  
  
“…You do not know, Doctor,” He lifts his eyes, and they are shattered, “I have no control over this anger that haunts me, and now I have let it hurt one of the few who have come to mean something in this… _existence_ of mine.” The word comes out through grit teeth, behind that mask.  
You furrow your brows, and frown as you lean forward on your knees. “Do you hate who you are, Gen?”  
His silence is answer enough for you, and it feels like someone has pressed shattered glass into your chest.  
  
“Can I tell you something?” You ask softly, and he turns his head. “When you were on the operating table, some 16 hours into the operation, your heart stopped.”  
His head lifts slightly higher. Genji hasn’t heard this story before, his body angles towards you as he listens.  
  
“Angie resuscitated you. 2 hours later, it stopped again.” You thread your fingers together. “Your heart stopped _3 times_ , and every, single time, Angie brought you back.”    
You take a deep breath and run a hand through your hair, a tired, small smile on your lips. You wait, letting him take it in. You inch closer cautiously, and he turns to you. For the first time this night, he does not avert his eyes. Very, very carefully, slowly, you raise your hands, and his eyes follow them, his body rigid, still as if he were not even breathing.  
  
Your fingers find the mechanical latches, and it’s all muscle memory at this point as you slide the cold faceplate from him. You’ve worked with it so much that you know exactly where the grooves in the metal are, where the plate is the thinnest and weakest, and you almost laugh as you think of how much grief this little piece of technology as given you. You place it down carefully and look at him properly, the scars, the shadows beneath the unnaturally luminous red eyes, his skin melding into the fake material of his chin. Even though your scrutiny makes him swallow and clench his jaw, you don’t turn away, you look at him _properly.  
  
_ He was breathtaking. When your fingertips touch his cheek, his eyes flutter and his breath catches, and you know it’s hiding far more turmoil than he lets on. He was so warm, despite being in the same cold you were for a longer time, and you could feel the grooves in his skin where the wounds had done their best to heal. You were glad that his systems were all working. Staying warm had never been a problem for the prone-to-overheating mechanics. You smile and press your palm to his cheek, and he exhales.  
  
“Well, I guess what I’m trying to say, is that…Gen, your life is worth fighting for. Maybe it’s not fair of me to say this, but your _existence_ means something to so many people. Especially to me.”  
  
“…Doctor,” When Genji finally speaks, his voice is soft, but there’s a different lilt to it. He closes his eyes and the edges of his lips curve upwards ever so slightly, so subtle that you can’t really call it a smile – but it’s _something_ , and it almost makes you flush.   
  
“Your hand is cold.”  
  
“Oh! Sorr – !”” You instantly yank your hand away but your words are cut short when he catches your wrist, and this time you really do flush when he leans into your palm.  
  
“It is cold…” he murmurs, and you don’t know if what you had said had made an impact at all, but right now, nothing matters but him, and his gentle touch against your wrist.

* * *

“The guards have been neutralised,” Genji says through your com device, and you respond by dropping down into the courtyard, the security cameras already disabled before the entire operation started. The compound is relatively small, but that meant there were a higher concentration of people to manoeuvre around. Really though, it’s only small by Overwatch ground standards. It still spans the length of the bay, under the guise of a fishing business.  
The night provides good cover, for you at least, and you recall the blueprints to navigate your way to the south exit, where you were meet Genji. Originally, you were just supposed to provide backup from the outside, but Genji ran into security systems he wasn’t able to decipher, and the two of you have had to improvise. The extensive security piques your curiosity – perhaps this sect was going to launch an attack sooner than expected. You frown. In that case, maybe just sending the two of you was a miscalculation.  
  
The exit is unlocked and when you walk in, Genji noiselessly drops down beside you. When you glance at him, the brief eye contact makes you clear your throat softly. Genji had once again bade you a goodnight too soon yesterday, but the one who had trouble sleeping after that was definitely you. You shake your head and try to focus on the mission. It was silly to get distracted by trivial things at such a dangerous time. He gestures down the dimly lit hall, and you both hurry along the warehouse corridor to the iron door at the end. The enforced steel stands out against the worn-down walls and salt rusted exterior of the building. You step over the unconscious guards gingerly and peer at the security system on the side of the door, pulling out the compact set of tools and machinery that you needed for the hack. Though there were obviously differences between a complex technological system like Genji’s and the computerised lock systems, at a fundamental level, there were similarities that made it possible for you to understand and figure out solutions.  
  
“Just keep an eye out,” You whisper as you lean over the keypad. It was all methodical, dismantling the back panel, working out exactly what kind of security it used, then getting your own special knick knacks to figure out the code.  
Realistically, the two of you did not have much time. It was only a matter of time before security cameras came back online, and while Genji has already taken care of all the guards, there were sure to be more obstacles and security measures in place to prevent a smooth intel operation. You try not to let the nerves get to you as the device cycles through numbers, and when it finally beeps, you try not to celebrate too much. The door slides open, and Genji holds a hand in front of you, leaning forward first. After a pause, he steps forward and beckons you in. Small machines that look like drones line the walls, and a central monitor sits in the middle of the room. You recognise the machines instantly as the ones that had detonated on Jessie and the rest of the Blackwatch team, and Genji does too.  
  
“Doctor,” Even Genji looks a little lost for words as he stares at the vast amount of the deadly robots he just recently had a close encounter with. “Even on our previous mission…there were only 2…”  
  
“There’s more than 50 of them in here…” You whisper, your brain trying to calculate the devastation the robots in this room were capable of causing. You snap out of your daze, bringing up the screen on your com device as you take pictures, write down everything you can to send back in your report. You had to get it to Overwatch as soon as possible. In your peripheral vision, you see Genji pause in his reconnaissance, his head flicking towards the door.  
  
“Company,” he says, and the alarms begin to blare. Maybe Genji was used to it, but to you, it feels like the action kicks off all at once. The alarm is piercingly loud, and before long, shouts and heavy footsteps echo around the corridor. As you look around, your heart sinks as you realise there’s only 1 exit – and there’s guards pouring through it.  
  
“Shoot to maim!” Through the din, you can hear the guards shouting orders and you send the report through, wiping everything else from your device. If they weren’t shooting to kill, then they were looking for prisoners. And you had a feeling they didn’t treat prisoners well here.  
Genji picks you up like you weigh nothing as gunshots ring out in the room. The ceiling is dome like, and the room is a circular shape with the monitor at its centre, which meant there was little space to run or hide.  
  
“Are you guys _crazy?_ ” You yell as you pull out the handgun from your holster, firing at the guard who was spraying the room. He yells and drops the gun as the bullet goes through his hand, and for the first time in a long time you’re glad that Jessie drilled you so hard on accuracy even after getting your field agent license. “You know there are _explosives_ in here, right?!”  
  
You curse under your breath – this is why you never hired cheap guards – as Genji places you down for a moment to leap across the room, disabling another guard with a knee under the chin and slicing the entire barrel off another’s rifle with his katana. Their bottlenecked entrance was your only advantage; you could take them down two at a time, but they had numbers on you, and your resources were limited. You had faith in Genji, but – you glance at him, and your fears are confirmed. The overheating has already made the lights on his body flash yellow. The wires were already starting to burn, and once those lights turned red, Genji would have limited access to his motor functions. Even being bulletproof would not help him forever.  
Your mind churns as you help in any way you can, but your ammo is limited, and Genji could not hold out much longer, though you knew he would go until his body gave up. You glance around the room desperately, the robots lining the walls, the sloping  
ceiling upwards…your eyes widen.  
  
“Gen, can you hold them off for 5 more minutes?” You ask as you leap into action, flinching slightly as Genji deflects a spray of bullets from flying in your direction and slams the butt of his wakizashi straight through the visored helmet of another guard.  
  
“Do you even need to ask, Doctor?” Genji launches himself back into the fight, and you start your own battle with the computer. It’s the same process as the door, and you boot up all the robots in the room once you have access. And then, against all your instincts, you activate them all for detonation. The room lights up with red lights as all the robots hum to life, and though you know you have about 20 seconds, all the hairs on your body stand up.  
  
“Um…” Genji’s voice wavers as he glances around him. He matches the room as he falters, the lights on his body now also flashing a dangerous red. “Doctor?”  
  
“Gen, can you still move okay?” You look at him as he stumbles, but he nods fiercely. You point along the wall, and he follows your finger. “We’re going up.”  
  
“What happened?! Why are they on?!” The gunfire ceases temporarily as the guards look wildly around the room, and Genji takes that opportunity to hold you tight and sprint along the wall, digging his hands in to make handholds where there were none. Even from the outside, you can hear the warning beeps inside Genji’s suit. His breath hisses, and more than once, you’re sure his limbs are going to give out. After all, you know the limitations of his body better than he does at this point – yet, he keeps going, until you hit that vent. He rips off the cover with ease, and all but pushes you in, the hail of gunfire finally returning.  
  
“10 seconds, Gen.” You throw the words behind your back like you’re asking him whether he wants to eat. He wordlessly follows, and as you move as fast as you can through the vent, you realise you’re not going to make it out all the way in time. The roar of the explosion precedes the actual impact by only a millisecond, and all you hear before the heat and dust catch up is a quick “Excuse me, Doctor.”

* * *

You gasp into consciousness, coughing as you wave dust from your face, the cold of the night negated by the heat of the flames roaring from the dome of the warehouse. You only realise you’re being held when Genji’s arms loosen and he lets out a soft groan. He’s taken the brunt of the explosion and shielded you from the impact of the ground, and it seems he’s finally realising that he is not invulnerable. The explosion has sent you two flying quite far away, the heat escaping through any means available.  
  
“Are you okay, Gen?” You cough again, giving up on sitting as you stare up the night sky. You can hear sirens in the distance.  
  
“…Yes,” he says through grit teeth. You don’t know why you bothered to ask. “Are you injured?”  
  
“You saved me, Gen. I’m fine.”  
  
He audibly sighs, and rolls onto his back with a pained grunt. As you both listen to the sirens getting closer, the crackling flames sending embers up into the black sky, you wonder how much trouble you were going to be in. To be fair, the fact you two even got out alive was a miracle. Genji’s body beeps insistently with overheating warnings beside you and you sigh dejectedly, if only the heat could escape like…  
You shoot straight up, and look at Genji. He opens one red eye, and takes off his face plate with his hand, letting his arm fall back down when he was done.  
  
“I know how to fix your overheating problem.”    
His other eye flickers open and he looks at you unblinkingly. And then, as flames crackle on in the background, smoke swirling into the air, blood trickling from his forehead, Genji begins to laugh. You’re stunned by the sound, by his smile, the deep, throaty laughter that peels from him, and it fills your world with a whole new set of colours. He drops his faceplate as he continues to laugh, and he covers his face with his hands.  
  
“Doctor…” His muffled voice is incredulous, and there’s a grin on your face just by hearing him, your heart is being powered by the heat of the sun. “I…”  
  
“Gen?” You laugh too, confused, leaning down to hear him better. He takes his hands from his face, his red eyes bright and shining, placing his cool palms on your cheeks, and then he says your name – and pulls you down to kiss him.

* * *

If you were to recall that kiss now, you would say that you couldn’t really remember the details surrounding it. That wasn’t exactly a lie, either. You don’t remember what you were wearing that night, what injuries you two had. You don’t remember how you hacked into the computer, or how you evaded the authorities. You do remember being heavily lectured by Commander Morrison, you remember how you fixed Genji’s overheating problem (vents, how did you not think of it before?) and you certainly remember how Overwatch disbanded, leaving you lost in the wreckage. Jessie decided to go live a vagabond lifestyle – it suited him well, and he still visited when he wasn’t being pursued by some form of authority.  
Genji…Well, Genji was somewhere in the world, perhaps trying to place meaning in his ‘existence’. You hoped he would find it, even if it wasn’t here with you. All of that is just background thought now, as years tick by in your small medical practice.  
  
But sometimes, when winter comes by and the fireplace crackles at home, the smell of smoke wafting by your nose, your fingers find themselves at your lips. You remember with frightening clarity that he tasted like embers, and the unmistakeable saltiness of tears, and your heart clenches tight with something hotter than flames, just like it did all those years ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's actually going to be like a epilogue when I'm done with McCree, so no, that's not the end for our boi Genji! There's gon be more to come <3 But that's it for now, I hope it's not too much of a cliffer :^)  
> Off to McCree route, thanks so much for the kudos and comments and all your lovely words! <3 <3

**Author's Note:**

> So just hit me up with who you think I should start writing next, because I cannot for the life of me decide with which 'route' I wanna start. Thanks so much for taking the time to read, I really hope you enjoy it!  
> come visit with suggestions or kick my ass whichever: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/smilingchipmunk


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